May Fair

Last Saturday we had lots of fun at our local May Fair. Our town green was converted into a fun fair with lots of rides for kids, food and stands set up by local businesses and charities. Anna was in heaven! She got to ride the "big kids" carousel. First with Carlos then with me. The carousel was gorgeous -- a true, old-fashioned one, beautifully maintained complete with a pipe organ playing the music! I have to say that I enjoyed myself thoroughly on the ride.

Next Anna had her face painted with a butterfly. What? You can't tell that is supposed to be a butterfly?!? Really?? Yikes. I couldn't complain because the face painting was being done for free by a charitable organization, but, boy, that is the worst face painting that I've ever seen! I think it looks like Anna did it herself ... without a mirror! Anna, on the other hand, thought it was fantastic. I was counting the minutes until I could whip out the baby wipes and wash it off.

Elsa slept through most of the fun fair. Next year, my little one, next year.

Girls in the garden (and Bugs Bunny's secret)

I love this shot because you can really see how juicy Elsa's chubby cheeks are. Delicious.

"I'm not so sure about this sunhat thing."

A surprisingly nice picture of Anna (given that she nearly always makes faces at the camera these days). Notice that Bugs Bunny is modeling a lovely pink frock -- who knew he cross dressed? And, yes, Anna is wearing cowboy boots. In fact, she's wearing a pair of boots that my dad gave me as a little girl.

Five Years

Five years ago today, Carlos and I stood at a church altar dressed in some pretty fancy duds and pledged our love for each other. It was a great day. Five wonderful years -- it is amazing to think we are just at the beginning of our journey together!

Zzzzzzzzzz

Shhhh. Can you hear that??? It is silent, totally and completely silent. Miracle of miracles, Elsa is asleep in her own bed and hasn't woken up yet. Thanks to Angelika (I spent the evening at my monthly Bunco event where we didn't actually play Bunco but just sat around and chatted while drinking some wine -- how nice). Maybe it took someone other than me or Carlos to tell her enough was enough. Angelika (who also is not a fan of the cryinng it out) told me that she put Elsa to bed and stayed with her for an hour until Elsa finally fell asleep. Then, as she moved to go out the door, Elsa woke up and started crying. According to Angelika, she just said: "Elsa, go to sleep!" and that was it. Elsa stopped crying and went to sleep. Sounds too good to be true.

The Power of Speech

Thank you to Amalah and Mimi Smartypants! As a result of reading Amalah's blog with a reference to Mimi Smartypants' blog, I got a parenting tip that avoided 3 whole Anna-tantrums today. OK, are you ready for the big tip .... make it talk. Yup, that's it. Make whatever you want your child to do talk. It really works.

[The scene is set -- 8:58 am, Anna is still in her pjs and wants to wear them to school. She needs to be ready to go out the door in about 7 minutes. ]
SIF: Anna, let's get dressed.
ANNA: No, I don't want to. [tone starting to change to the whining tone that makes my hair stand on end]
S: Come on, you need to get dressed to go to school.
A: NO!
S: [remembering the sage Mimi Smartypants advice] Look Anna [holding up Dora the explorer underpants], Dora wants to say something to you. [In a high squeaky voice] Hi Anna, I'm Dora. I want to ride around on your bottom and go to school with you today. Come on Anna - put me on!
A: [tantrum rage instantly subsides, and a giggle starts to form] Mamma, what else does Dora say?
S: [after getting over the initial shock of how easy that was] Anna, I want you to put me on and then I'd like you to put your stripey shirt and tights on.
[without any more fuss, underpants, tights, shirt all go on]
S: Anna, let put your dress on. Look, your dress has little doggies on it. Do you know what this doggie says? Woof woof! Anna let me go to school with you today! Please please please!
A: [giggles, and puts the dress on]
THE END

AMAZING, I tell you, absolutely amazing. And the talking underpants weren't a fluke. It worked again at lunch time and again at bathtime [although, the bathtime "talking" involved some humiliating imitations of the Little Mermaid's singing].

I wish I could find something like that to solve Elsa's poor sleeping habits. Thankfully, I finally kicked my nasty houseguests to the curb -- SEE YA SUCKAHS! I hope we have no more visits from Messrs VB and ED. So, Elsa's back to her relatively cheerful self. But, she's been having bouts of extreme grumpiness. And I think this is due to the fact that she's cutting a molar! What??? The child only has 4.5 teeth (2 on the bottom, 2.5 on top)! But, the other day I noticed that she had an area on her gums, toward the back, that was really red and swollen. At first I thought she might have scratched it somehow, and it was infected. But, upon closer inspection, and finger probing on my part, I think is it a darned molar. How crazy is that? So, after being sick and having a bunch of teeth take forever to come in, Elsa is not, I repeat, not sleeping well. I've just spent the last hour and a half doing some controlled crying to see if I can't get her to fall asleep on her own. Crying it out is really an option of last resort on my part -- I find it extremely difficult. Let's hope she'll stay alseep. Fingers crossed.

PS: Anna has started calling her stuffed animals, and me, "darling". Yesterday, when I asked her to come to the table for dinner, she responded: "Just a minute, darling."

The worst house guests ... ever

I've just had a visit from the worst house guest ever - Mr. Vomiting Bug. He first arrived last Sunday evening and before I realized that I had even let him in the door, he snuck in his buddy - Mr. Explosive Diarrhea.

Reason #1 Messrs VB & ED are the worst house guests: They dared to attack my baby. I mean, really, gentlemen, why not pick on someone your own size and who isn't so damn cute? Elsa dealt with her first attack, initially just Mr. VB, pretty well, but she was clearly feeling awful. I know something is up when she has no appetite.

Reason #2 Messrs VB & ED are the worst house guests: They dared to attack my baby again. Wasn't Sunday enough?? Clearly not. Tuesday our washing machine got a work out. Tuesday Mr. VB decided to relax a bit, but Mr. ED wanted to party. I've never seen poop run down a pantleg with such speed and velocity.

Reason #3 Messrs VB & ED are the world's worst house guests: They dared to attack my baby a third time. ENOUGH ALREADY -- GET OUT OF MY HOUSE! Yesterday we had more vomiting and explosive pooping. Today, however, so far, so good. Poor Elsa is stuck eating bread, bananas and rice.

Me - I've had almost no sleep for a week because of these high maintenance house guests. Today I nearly went out to the grocery store in my slippers.

Pink Ladies

Elsa and I have started the London chapter of the Pink Ladies. Pink eye has arrived in my household. First Elsa, and now me. Ick ick ick and double ick. I'm not surprised that I've gotten it since Elsa's favorite activity of late is to blow huge, wet raspberries right in my face.

I'm just waiting to see if Anna will become a member of our exclusive club or not.

P.S. Way to go UK government - they've just extended their paid maternity leave from six months to nine months. US government -- get with the program!

Elsa & Sir Edmund Hillary

What do Elsa and Sir Edmund Hillary have in common? They both like climbing tall things. In Sir Edmund's case, it was Mount Everest. In Elsa's case, it is the stairs in the house. And, for someone just shy of 80 cm, that involves some Everest-like climbing.

Elsa has fallen in love with walking up the stairs. The key word here is "walking". She wants me to hold her hands as she steps up the stairs from the bottom level all the way to the top. That's 50 steps. Does that mean I have something in common with Sherpa guide Tenzig Norgay?

By the way, we had our 1 year check up on Friday, and no surprise here - Elsa's still pretty big (23 lbs and 78 cm). Anna better watch her back because at this rate Elsa's going to catch up with her big sister soon.

Good morning and farewell

Today is a grey and cold day. Grey in the way only London can do – steely with a damp cold that takes many cups of tea to shake off. In keeping with the weather, I saw the most bizarre site while walking with Anna to school – horse-drawn funeral procession going right down the main street leading into Richmond. Two jet black horses with jet black feathery headpieces were drawing a hearse carriage followed by a slow procession of black cars. Wow.

I’ve never seen something like this before. It is definitely a way to make a statement as you exit from the physical world – black horses clop-clopping down the street with two black-clad coachmen in black top hats.

Sneaky in the AM, Part II

You'd think I'd have learned my lesson last month when I discovered that Anna had been sneaking down to the kitchen in the mornings and gobbling up anything sweet that I may have left on the counter. But, no, not this mom.

Last Sunday was mother's day here in the UK, and Carlos went out in the morning to a cafe/bakery that's down the street to get some delicious pasteries for us. While he was there, he found a chocolate/marzipan sheep shaped like Shaun the Sheep. Shaun is a creation of Nick Park, the claymation guy who created Wallace and Gromit. Shaun the Sheep now stars in a TV show here (see him at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc/cartoons/shaunthesheep/), and Anna loves the show. As a matter of fact, we all love the show; it is very funny. So, Carlos thought Anna would enjoy getting a little Shaun the Sheep sweet. And I thought it was a good thing to use to incentivize Anna to finish her food.

Last night, Wednesday, Shaun still had not been eaten by Anna because she had failed to finish a single dinner since Sunday night. I put Shaun on the dinner table last night and told Anna that all she needed to finish were a few measly piece of pasta and some vegetables and Shaun would be all hers. She seemed pretty excited, but promptly started whining about how she couldn't finish her pasta and didn't want to eat vegetables. Shaun the Sheep went back into the packaging and back on the counter. BIG MISTAKE. Shaun was now on Anna's radar. This morning Anna came into my room at a little past 7 am. We all got up and went down for some breakfast. Nothing downstairs looked amiss, but then I looked a little more closely. The Shaun the Sheep packaging had, in fact, been tampered with. I peered inside to find a small portion of Shaun's sheep butt left, but the rest was gone. ANNA!!!!!! I was not pleased in the slightest.

Note to self: You have a small, browned-eyed sweetie thief living in your household. Do not leave sweeties lying around the kitchen.

I've been warned.

Eating and Sleeping

Eating and sleeping are two things that I enjoy immensely. Good food not only satisfies my hunger, I think it also is good for my soul. And sleeping -- I wish I could sleep 10 hours a night.

Eating -- Anna has developed the world's smallest appetite. I am at my wit's end as to what to do to get this child to eat properly. The thing the worries me the most is that I remember what a poor eater I was as a child, and I'm dreading have to deal with someone who is like I was. Anyone have any ideas for what I can do to make mealtimes less of a struggle??

Sleeping -- Anna, despite not eating much, is a pretty good sleeper. She's a deep sleeper and falls asleep easily on her own. Elsa, on the other hand, is a champion eater, but a lousy sleeper. She craves physical contact so badly that getting her to fall asleep on her own is a monumental task. Argh.

I went to Spamalot last weekend. It was pretty darn funny, but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who doesn't like Monty Python. A lot of silly humor and poking fun at musicals, particularly Andrew Lloyd Weber musicals.

Struggling

Ugh. I'm really struggling to get work done today. I've been feeling gross and nauseous since last night, and I'm worried because there's a nasty vomiting bug going around. I hope I'm just feeling icky due to lack of sleep. I just bought tickets for Spamalot for tomorrow night to go with my brother and Carlos. I'd really much rather listen to Monty Python gags than do a close examination of my toilet's porcelain.

Happy Birthday Elsa

It has been 12 whole months since that moment in the wee hours of March 12, 2006 when I told Carlos: "I wouldn't bother getting changed into your pyjamas if I were you." And 12 whole months of getting to know a lovely little person named Elsa Lind. She is a mischevious little slice of joy.

Today was a glorious and unusually warm spring day -- what a wonderful way to welcome Amma, Afi and Kiddi. They arrived this morning and Anna and Elsa were thrilled to see them. Anna immediately co-opted Kiddi to be her own personal entertainment -- she loves her Uncle Kiddi. Meanwhile, the birthday girl entertained with her belly laughs, bear hugs and bottom scoots. It was one of those days that made me feel like a very very lucky person.

P.S. In the background of the pictures you can see some of the new colors of the house. I'm particularly in love with the terracotta color.

Queen of Scat

I've been waiting for this moment to come, and it has arrived. Anna is the queen of scat in this household. Scatalogical humor, that is. Lately, she thinks anything that involves the words: poopoo, stinky or poopy is fall down laughing funny. Her favorite saying is "Elsa's a stinky poopoo." Then she proceeds to crack herself up for about 10 minutes. Hilarious.

This may be something to file under "too much information", but I think my hips are finally moving back to their pre-pregnancy location. Either that, or I'm developing some wicked arthritis in my hips. I hope it is the former. It started a few weeks ago with my left hip aching, and that made me feel like a crooked grocery cart (or "shopping trolley" if I'm to get all British with you). My bad left hip made me feel like I wanted to veer off to the right all the time. At least now that both hips are aching, I don't feel like I'm veering off course anymore. Maybe this means that some of my prepregnancy clothes will start fitting again. Yeah, that's right -- they don't fit because my hips haven't gone back and not because I continue to consume too many biscuits and other sweet treats. (As Anna says: "I love sweets -- they're so tasty!" -- like mother like daughter)

Is it too good to be true?

The insurance company's claims adjuster came today to check out all the damage under my floors from the drain fiasco. I was ready for a fight -- I was positive he would tell me that the insurance would only cover the replacement of a portion of the flooring instead of everything. Replacing just one portion of the floor would look ridiculous since we the same wood flooring covering the entire kitchen/family/dining room area. But, the claims adjuster agreed that would should replace the entire floor (especially since we don't know how extensive the water damage is). Wow! Although, I'm going to wait until I get the check from the insurance company before I really celebrate.

On a side note, this part of my homeowners insurance coverage is for "escape of water". I think this is such a funny phrase. To me, this phrase sounds like something that has been translated into English from another language -- it doesn't sound quite right to my ears, even though it is technically correct. I'm a weirdo.

Anna continues to raid Elsa's closet. I'm thinking of putting a child lock over the knobs of the closet doors. Also, she's decided that she no longer says "No thank you"; she says "no thank".

Gorgeous

Spring spring spring spring. Today is a perfect, sunny spring day. Lots of puffy white clouds in the sky, and I see small green buds forming on the trees. The sun is an instant mood lifter, especially after the torrential downpours we've been having.

Painting on the house is nearly done, and I'm really loving the new colors. I just wish we had added the living room to the rooms that we decided to paint. That will just have to wait until the next painting project.

When do children start to understand the concept of time? I told Anna that Amma, Afi and Kiddi are coming for a visit in one week, and she's been asking me constantly if Amma is coming today. I say, no, not yet, and point to the calendar and show her how many days we have to wait. It doesn't seem to sink in.

How does she do it?

Anna has developed a strange talent. I've mentioned that she likes to raid Elsa's closet and use Elsa's clothes for her stuffed animals. Well, Anna has decided that her stuffed animals shouldn't be the only ones to have all the fun, and she's started getting dressed in Elsa's clothes (many of these clothes are too small for Elsa). The recent pattern of events has been as follows: we come home from school; we eat lunch; Anna says she wants to play in her room; I hear nothing for an extended period of time; Anna descends in a dress intended for a 6-12 month old. I have no idea how she manages to get these dresses on because it is quite tricky to get her out of them.

We had a great visit from the lovely Alison this weekend. I love it when she has business trips to London which can be extended to a weekend visit with us. Anna and Elsa just love her. We are lucky to have her friendship.

Metamorphosis

I could have sworn that this morning I left a small, brown-eyed girl at nursery school. However, this afternoon, I collected a small, brown-eyed crab to bring home with me. Crabby crabby. Hopefully, she's just hungry and will feel better after a lunch of yogurt and bread with butter (apparently, that's what crabs eat). I guess everyone is entitled to be in a bad mood once in a while.

Color and Colour

I'm so happy! The walls of my house have been transformed from icky beige to lovely shades of yellow and cream and terracota. Hurray! Tomorrow the painters should finish the halls and stairs which are now a lovely combination of cream and terracota (a sort of brick red/orangey brown) and my family room/dining room is yellow (and the office will be a lovely shade of green). I love it! I think my love for colorful rooms harkens back to my childhood bedroom, for which I have my parents to thank. As a kid, my bedroom was painted bright colors - yellow, green and orange and I also had curtains made of this fantastic Marimekko fabric (a tulip pattern in similar colors).

Has anyone ever played Bunco? I just got home from a monthly outing with some American and Canadian women I know here. We play a dice game called Bunco that is really quite fun. Usually I do very poorly, but tonight, miracle of miracles, I got the high score and won £20!! Wowee!

Sneaky in the AM

When I woke up this morning around 7:30, the house was silent. Ahhh, I thought. Maybe I can either have a much-needed shower or go down to the kitchen and have a quiet cup of coffee before the girls wake up. I went into Anna's room to make sure that she was still sleeping, and her bed was empty! Hmmm. So downstairs I go, and guess who I find in the kitchen -- Miss Anna herself. Her mouth was covered in white stuff. She had snuck downstairs, gotten onto the kitchen counter and eaten up 4 cupcakes with white icing! We made cupcakes the day before I was using them as bribery to get her to eat her food. Well, I guess she decided that my method wasn't to her liking. I can't believe she ate so many.

Sneaky little girl.

P.S. I didn't get the quiet cup of coffee nor the much-needed shower (ponytails are wonderful things on days like today).

Flowing

The water is finally flowing through my kitchen sink and down the drain! Hurray for Glen at Dynorod! At last, I can use the dishwasher again. Washing the dishes by hand is a real drag.

Painting is underway at the house. I'm very excited to see how it turns out. We're going rather bold with the colors. I guess it is a reaction to all the beige in the house. I'll finally post pictures of the house once this is complete. I've given the painters a deadline -- they need to be done by Elsa's birthday. Can you believe that she turns one in two weeks time???

Here's Elsa's latest party trick: when she hears a phone ring, she puts a hand up to her ear like she's answering the phone and starts babbling. Very funny.

Banged up

Maybe Anna isn't that cautious after all. Recently, I had written about Anna being cautious at gymanastics. But, today when I picked Anna up from school, I found her with a bloody nostril, scraped cheek and fat lip. Yikes! Her teacher informed me that she had taken a tumble off on of the bikes when she was outside playing. She told me that Anna loves to go really fast on the bikes, and I guess she got a little carried away. Poor little one.

My house is abuzz with activity. I have someone here painting the interior -- hopefully transforming our house from being all beige all the time to something more colorful. I've also got someone coming tomorrow to hopefully resolve the drain problem. I'd really like to have the kitchen sink back in working order and reall really want my dishwasher back. I've also made a claim under my homeowner's insurance to see if I can get some help repairing the water damage on the floor. Fingers crossed.

Down the Drain ...

that's where my money is literally going. I'm still trying to resolve the kitchen sink drainage problem and on Friday I had a drains specialist here with a camera in the pipes trying to figure out the problem. He discovered that the main drain for the house is smack dab in the middle of my family room, and, here's the kicker, it has been covered up by our floor. Yup - no access without cutting a hole in our hardwood floors. What the f**k? Who builds a house where you cover the main drain for the house in concrete and put the dining area/family room over it???? I'm so annoyed. I know my house is old and has had many incarnations -- first a single family home, then a divided into two apartments, then a single family home and extended out the back, then the attic was converted into livable space. But this just makes me boil. It is just stupid to cover up this drain. Now, I have a 3 foot square cut out of my floor to reveal access to the pipe that drains water from the kitchen sink -- which, by the way, had bubbled up and leaked water into the subflooring, but that's another story. I have drain people coming again on Monday to see if they can't fix the problem with what we've already done. Hopefully they'll be able to fix the problem just just accessing the pipe and not the actual drain (that's buried in concrete further below the floor).

On a lighter note, I was smiling today about some of Anna's funny speech patterns. She calls skating "scaping" and sweeping "sweeting". Also, when she asks for help, she says: "Mamma, can you help for me?"

Pardon the bad pun, but I'm drained.

Nothing But the Truth

I just got home from an outing with the people that I work with. The director of the organization has treated us to tickets to a play at the Hampstead Theatre called "Nothing but the Truth". You can read about it here. It was amazing. The best play I've seen in a really long time. The play is about the transition to democratic government in South Africa and the process of coming to terms with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission process. It is written by John Kani, and he also stars in it. He was truely incredible. What a performance. I was completely blown away by him. The play itself was also so interesting because it involved a storyline which showed the interplay of the personal and the political in the people's lives. If you get a chance to see this --GO.

Francesca Pig

Meet Francesca Pig. This is Anna's latest best friend, favorite toy, constant companion.

The pig was actually a gift to Elsa from our lovely friend Kelly, but Anna seems to have appropriated for her own use (as she has done with a number of other things that Elsa has been given; just wait till Elsa's a little bigger!!). When we returned to London after our Christmas trip, and Anna started school again, suddenly the pig was named Francesca. I thought where on earth did she come up with that name? It turns out that there is a girl at her nursery school that is named Francesca, and it seems that she is the "alpha" girl in the class. She's among the oldest, has long blond hair, etc., etc. I can't believe it starts so early, but one of Anna's teachers told me that all of the younger girls are completely enamored with Francesca.

Francesca (the pig) has quite an extensive wardrobe. She's pictured here dressed as Tinkerbell with a string of pearls. Usually, her outfits are pulled from Elsa's closet. At one time or another, I think Francesca has worn most of Elsa's clothes, and some of Anna's.

Following the success of Francesca Pig in Anna's stuffed animal menagerie, Anna now has recently named her beloved stuffed hippo, Violetta Hippo. And guess what? There's a girl in Anna's class named Violetta, and she's friends with Francesca. What a surprise.

Valentine's Chaos

Happy Valentine's Day!

Picture my afternoon -- Anna and Elsa had cute outfits, had just eaten a good lunch, and were both in good moods. It is a nice, sunny day. What a perfect time to take a picture of the two sisters. I don't have very many pictures of the two of them together. Who could have imagined that it would be next to impossible to get a proper picture of the two of them together.

This is what I took before I gave up.

Erratum & Dumb-dumb

Elsa actually has four teeth now. The second front tooth up top has popped through.

Figured out what was wrong with the digital camera -- it needed new batteries. Duh. I thought I had put new batteries in it, but I guess I put in old, dead batteries. Double duh. Now, the girls are asleep in bed, so no pics. Maybe tomorrow.

Back, 11 months & cautious Anna

We're back from Barcelona. Yayo loved seeing his two little grand-daughters for his birthday, and the girls loved seeing their grandparents. Anna loves the extra attention, and Elsa loves the extra food. Elsa is turning into a bottomless pit at meal times. I swear, I think she would eat an entire roast chicken if I let her. Mind you, she only has three teeth.

Elsa, or the Chubster as she is known intra-familia, is 11 months. No pictures, I'm afraid. Our digital camera seems to have died on me. I need to figure out how to revive it. Elsa is growing and changing so fast these days I feel like she's going to be a completely different person by the time she turns one next month (I know, next month, can you believe it?). Elsa's decided that crawling on all fours is definitely not her cup of tea. She scoots around on her bottom remarkably fast. The scarey thing is she always scoots her bottom over to the stairs (going down) and thinks it is incredibly funny when I tell her no and move her. What a fun game. Other than scaring her mother, Elsa is clapping, waving bye-bye and generally being a jolly baby (and, dare I write it, sleeping better).

Yesterday, Elsa and I got to observe Anna again at her gymnastics class. She's really funny to watch. Unlike her daredevil sister, Anna is a cautious one. She's finally feeling comfortable on the trampoline and doing some jumping there, but she doesn't like jumping into the foam pit. The foam pit is at the end of the trampoline and about the size of a small swimming pool. Most of the kids in her class jump into the pit as if it were a pool, but not Anna. Anna will go running full speed toward the pit, only to stop at the end, sit her bottom down and slide in that way. Bless her cautious little heart.

Anna also has decided that band-aids (or plasters as they're called here) are solutions to everything. So much so, that when we were watching March of the Penguins the other day, and one of the penguins was eaten by a seal, Anna told me, "Oh no, poor penguin. I think he needs a plaster."

New Toy

I've got a brand, spanking new toy -- a new laptop!! Hurrah for my job! My old computer was giving me so many problems it almost wasn't worth using. However, that is now a thing of the past. I'm just whizzing around the internet today with tons of applications running, and not a problem in sight. Fantastic!

We're off to Barcelona tomorrow for Yayo's 80th birthday.

The Midas Touch

Everything I touched today turned to crap. Boy, what a day. I feel like I'm living in the Money Pit. First, the kitchen sink got clogged, and I went off to get the horrible chemical stuff to clear it up. Didn't really work. I'll try again tomorrow. I'm trying to avoid calling in a plumber. Then the toilet in the girls' bathroom wouldn't stop running. The water tank wouldn't fill up and water kept running into the toilet bowl. I opened up the tank to see that toilets in the UK look different than toilets in the US. I didn't really know what to do. Argh -- if it were a standard US toilet, I'd know how to fix this (believe it or not). Then to cap off the day, I blew a fuse that caused a lightbulb to burst and all the lights in the upstairs part of the house to go off. Double argh because this confirmed something that I already knew, but didn't want to acknowledge -- the electrics in this old house totally stink. At some point I need an electrician to come and fix it. For now, I'm taking the ostrich approach.

By the way, I was supposed to be working today, and I didn't finish what I needed to finish. This means I'll be up late.

Also, I agreed to host playgroup tomorrow. Why????? This means I'll be up even later to clean up and go over the toy boxes to make sure there's nothing disgusting (i.e., petrified raisins) in there.

In other news, Elsa has definitely taken to walking around if you hold her by the hands. It is amazing. She's figured out the one foot in front of the other thing. She still doesn't crawl on all fours, preferring to do a very weird bottom scoot.

Resurfacing

Happy New Year!

At last I'm getting my act together and posting. How sad that it almost the end of January.

We woke up to quite a surprise this morning -- SNOW! And, in London, that means that everything goes nutty. They're not so used to snow here. But, Anna, Elsa and I are having fun. Anna thinks snow is just the most fun thing she could play with. I've posted some pictures from our back garden, including a picture that demonstrates how crazy the weather has been. It has been really warm in England all winter -- we've barely had any frost, and the plants are quite confused. So I took a picture of one of our plants (I don't know the names of anything) that has started getting flower buds and now is covered with snow. That's global warming for you.

We had a great time with Amma and Afi over Christmas, but we've been so busy since we returned. And for the last week we've been dealing with a croupy Elsa keeping me up all night and now we're dealing with a stuffy, red-nosed Sif. Ick.

Just in the (St.) Nick of time

We made it out of London just in time. There has been horrible fog in London that started the day after we left and tons of flights out of Heathrow have been cancelled. It would really stink to be stuck in Heathrow with lots of cranky holiday travellers.

We're at Amma and Afi's house have loads of fun and seeing old friends. Anna couldn't be happier -- lots of attention and a Christmas tree with a number of ornaments to rearrange.

Christmas came early!

I just found out that the grant for my work has come through! Hurray!!!!

P.S. We're off tomorrow morning to spent Christmas with Amma and Afi in DC. 8 hours on an airplane with Anna and Elsa (and Carlos). Fingers crossed that we arrive in DC with our sanity intact.

9 Months ...

and sitting pretty. Elsa still doesn't seem interested in crawling. She just wants to stand or scoot around in circles on her bottom.

Am I in Kansas??

A tornado touched down in northwest London this morning. Yup, you read correctly, a freakin' tornado! What on earth is going on? Thankfully, only a few injuries and no fatalities. By the way, I'm in southwest London, so just some really really crazy weather here this morning (torrential rain, hail, thunder, lightning and whiplash-inducing winds).

By the way, I just looked at the earlier post. When I said that Anna was a little star in her Christmas show, I meant that she was a little star like in the sky rather than the star of the show. Of course, I thought she was a star, but the reality is that Anna was a bit overwhelmed with so many people watching the show. She had her back to the audience a good bit of the time. I got a number of pictures of the back of her head.

Three

Miss Anna is 3 years old as of Monday. What a busy week we've had!

Sunday: Anna's birthday party. Her friends (and their parents) came over for a lunch-time party. They all had fun decorating paper crowns with stickers, and eating potato chips (who knew that Kettle chips can keep six 3 year olds quiet for 30 minutes!!).

Monday: Anna's birthday and observation day at her gymnastics class. Carlos took the day off of work and he was able to spend some extra time with the birthday girl. We spent 45 minutes laughing at observation day at her gymnastics class. There is a little girl named Olivia in Anna's class that is very taken with her. She's one of those little girls that has the mother hen instinct, and Anna is her little chick. She always wants to hold Anna's hand and help her with the activities. Anna doesn't seem to mind, but a couple of times it looked like she'd had enough.

Wednesday: Christmas concert at Anna's school. Anna was a little star in her school's Christmas concert. The whole thing was super cute, but I'm not not interesting for anyone who doesn't have a child in that school.

Phew. Now I need to get ready for a meeting on Saturday with the organization I work for. Hopefully, I should find out if the grant has come through that would allow my job to be expanded and paid! Woohoo. Fingers crossed.

Waiter, there's a fly in my soup, or

in Anna's case, "Mamma, there's a stegasaurous in my Cheerios." Pause, then she added, with an explanatory tone, "a dinosaur." Glad that Anna thinks her mother is a little slow.

All I can say is, way to go for her nursery school. Her teachers are teaching her so many new things. Some mornings, they have a whole collection of plastic dinosaurs out for the kids to play with, and Anna must have learned some the names. She's also started correcting me when I say "yea" instead of "yes" (which I do all the time).

By the way, there wasn't a stegasaurous, or any other kind of dinosaur, in her Cheerios.

We had a good night with Elsa last night, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed for tonight.

8 Months (already?!?), Breakthrough #2 & Anna's New Friend

Elsa has reached the 8 month mark (still no crawling, but she stands like a champ). On one of the pictures you can get a look at the first tooth. Tooth #2 has just broken through, and Elsa is finally starting sleep better.

Miss Anna has made a new friend at school. She informed me on Friday that she played with "Julie-fish" at school today. Turns out that "Julie-fish" is called Julius by his mother and father.

Breakthrough!

Elsa's first tooth has finally made its long-awaited appearance! Hurray! Maybe I'll get some sleep tonight. Hey, I'm ever the optimist.

Random thoughts

• Will my stomach ever stop feeling like a squishy marshmallow?
• Will Elsa ever become a good sleeper again? (please, little tooth, just come out already)
• Am a scarring Anna forever by reading silly fairy tales for her? (she is currently obsessed with Cinderella and Rapunzel; it is the "and she married the prince and lived happily ever after" bit that worries me)
  
• Will Carlos be home for more than two days at a time? (I think the answer to that is no. At least not until Christmas.)

By the way, no trick or treaters. That means I'm left with lots of candy. Oh dear.

It is the simple things

There are small things that just can make one's day. For instance, I just finished folding some dry laundry. The key word here, folks, is dry. Yes, I have a dryer!! Most people wouldn't get too excited about having a dryer, but I haven't had one (or one that worked properly) since August 2003. The lovely Bosch dryer arrived today, and I wasted no time setting it up. Dry clothes in under an hour -- woohoo. At our last house, we had a horrid contraption known as a washer/dryer. Basically, that means the machine neither washes your clothes very well, nor dries them very well. Talk about frustration. I can't wait to wash my towels and have them be all soft and fluffy. I realize it isn't very environmentally friendly of me to get so excited about something that uses up so much energy, but London just is not a dry enough place to hang out your laundry to dry.

Enough about that.

Elsa is still working on getting over her stuffy nose. Part of the problem seems to be that she's working on her two first teeth and I remember that teething always gave Anna a runny nose. Maybe the same is happening to the Chubster. She really seems rather miserable. Poor little one.

Other simple things that make me happy:
- hot, milky tea on a rainy day
- biting into the perfect apple - crispy, juicy and a bit tart (rather than mealy, dry and sweet - yuck)
- when Anna and Elsa sleep until 8:30 (this doesn't happen very often)
- Elsa's bear hugs
- reading bedtime stories with Anna

I wonder if I'll get any trick-or-treaters tomorrow?

Happy Halloween ... early

We went to a Halloween party today. Not much exciting to report from the party, but here are some pics of the girls.

Stuffy

Minus Carlos, we've all got colds at the moment. I feel like my head has been stuffed full of cotton balls (or cotton wool as people say here). Anna had a tremendous amount of energy today despite the fact she had a torrent of snot flowing out of her poor red nostrils. She ended the day by jumping in her bed like a maniac for 10 minutes. I got exhausted just watching her. Elsa is also all boogery -- probably from the fact that Anna is always touching her. She was not quite as energetic as Anna today, but still pretty feisty. Elsa really really wants to crawl, but all she can manage to do is push herself backwards. I don't think that's going to cut it for her.

Executive Summary

With the new house, Anna starting school, Carlos traveling constantly and me trying to work on Tuesdays and Thursdays, I just can't keep up!

House: Loving the new house, but the 50 steps from top to bottom are literally kicking my butt. We've still got a bit of work to do on it, and now have a bit more after a pipe burst in the ceiling of our family room while my mom was visiting.

Carlos: He's actually in London this week. Poor guy has been traveling like it was going out of style.

Anna: She's a hoot. Ever since she started school, she's full of funny things. The other day, while my mom was visiting, she went upstairs to get something from her room, and told us: "You stay here people". !?!?

Elsa: Now 7 months and 20 lbs. Very juicy and delicious. The only problem is that she's teething and reaching the separation anxiety phase so she's not sleeping all that well. It stinks to go from having a good sleeper to a bad sleeper. I really hope this phase passes quickly.

More details and photos to follow!

Boo Hoo Day Two

Day two of nursery school didn't go too well. I got a call at about 11 am (school is from 9:30 to 12:30 every day) from one of Anna's teachers asking me to come and pick her up early. About an hour after I dropped her off, she started crying and nothing would settle her down. What happened??? Yesterday she was fine, no tears. Today, it was the end of the world. Que pasa Anna?

Here are some other recent pics of the girls.

First day of school & a 6 month old Garbanza

I’ve been MIA for the last month or so, haven’t I? Well, the good news is that we’re closing on our house the day after tomorrow – Friday. Woohoo! So, next week is moving week. Yikes. Moving has been crazy pre-children; it was crazy when we moved to London with Anna, and now I have no idea what to expect with Anna and Elsa. Fingers crossed all goes well.

Today was Miss Anna’s first day of nursery school. All went well. No tears. Thankfully, two of Anna’s friends from playgroup are in the class. When it was time for me to go, Anna was holding hands with her friend Riley as they went off to the play-dough table. It was very cute. All the children at Anna’s nursery school wear smocks at school, and it was adorable to see all the little ones running around in their different colored smocks (Anna’s is yellow). Anna wouldn’t pose for me in her “first day of school” outfit so I had to settle for a picture of her and Elsa in the stroller as we were heading out the door. Hopefully, she’ll pose for me in her smock tomorrow.

Miss Elsa is six months old! Unbelievable how fast she has grown. Suddenly, she’s grabbing everything that comes near her, and chatting all the time. I can see her attempting to start crawling, but we’re not there yet. Her latest developments are two-fold. First, we’ve discovered that Elsa has a bit of a dairy intolerance. I noticed after starting her on solids that she was really itchy and scratching her skin very badly. For a while, it looked like I had dropped her in a rose bush; she had scratches all over her legs and arms. I couldn’t figure out what was going on. After taking her to the doctor, we guessed that she had developed eczema as a result of her increased intake of dairy through the formula that I was using to mix her cereal. Clearly, the dairy in my diet was only irritating her slightly, but as soon as we introduced formula it was too much for her to handle. So, I found a new formula and stopped eating most dairy. Lo and behold, smooth skin again! Development number 2, Elsa has developed a new move that I’ve called the “I’m so happy to be alive” move. I need to capture it on video. It is one of the greatest things to see. When I lay Elsa down in bed, especially when it is in my bed, she usually starts to do a full body wiggle with arms and legs pumping accompanied by an enormous smile. It just screams out: “I’m just so happy.” It makes you want to eat her up in all her juiciness!

A horse, a potty and a bribe

Have I been duped by a 2⅔ year old?

OK, here comes the inevitable potty training story.

Anna starts nursery school next month, and she needs to be potty trained before she starts. When I first started thinking about it I thought I had all the time in the world. No worries. She’ll be trained in no time. Think again, remembering what a headstrong child Miss Anna can be. Now we’re down to a month before school starts, and the clock is ticking (not to mention all the other things going on – i.e., we’re probably moving house around the same time as she starts school).

I decided the key to potty training was good, old fashioned bribery. Anna and I went out to the toy store and made a few purchases. For each successful pee in the potty, she gets several stickers of the Disney Princess variety (will someone please tell me where this obsession comes from – we didn’t have any of the princess paraphernalia in the house, but she’s still obsessed). Then, for her first poo in the potty, she was supposed to get a little, white horse. Last Sunday was the first day that we started potty training in earnest, and Anna spent the whole day without a diaper on (unless she was sleeping). The first pee was a little traumatic for her, but she did it and was over the moon with her princess stickers. Then, we talked about what she would get if she did a poo in the potty (the white horse). A little while later, she just sat down on the potty and pooed like there was nothing to it. As soon as she finished she said: “Have the white horsey”. I was feeling really excited that everything was going so well and Anna seemed to be getting the hang of using the potty lickety split. No, she was getting the hang of how bribery works. Once she got the horse, she lost all interest in pooing in the potty. Pees are still exciting because she still gets the princess stickers when she does those, but nothing was happening on the poo front. So, as if I didn’t learn my lesson the first time, I found something new to bribe Anna to poo in the potty. Stamps. I should have thought of this earlier. At Anna’s gymnastics class, the teacher gives them each a stamp on the back of the hand at the end of the class for a job well done. The kids just love getting the stamp. Now when Anna poos she gets a stamp on the back of her hand. It worked like a charm today. Ah, the power of the stamp.

Have you ever looked back at how you were when you were a kid, and thought: “Boy, I really hope my kids don’t do this to me.” This whole horse business reminded me of an incident when I was little and my dad tried bribing me to encourage positive behavior. I think I was about 8 or 9, and my dad thought it would be fun if I would go jogging with him on a regular basis. To encourage me to go with him, he told me that if I ran a mile, he’d buy me a new pair of running shoes and a new track suit. Anna’s princess obsession pales in comparison with my love affair with shoes. Off my dad and I went to our local YMCA. We went to the little track there, and 6 laps around the track equals a mile. I started running and with the rhythm of my running, I heard in my head: “new shoes, new shoes” in time with my feet hitting the pavement. Six laps later, it was time for my dad to pay up. I still remember the track suit – navy blue with different color satin stripes down the side of the legs and down the sleeves. The new shoes were white running shoes with green stripes. My poor dad never got me out on the track again.

In other news from Old Blighty, Elsa is about to turn 5 months. I gave her some rice cereal yesterday, and she gobbled it up. I think she’s definitely ready to start solids. She’s so big that sometimes I worry that my milk supply just isn’t enough for her. Elsa’s also rolling over from back to front all the time. She’s been rolling for a while, but now it has turned into a crazy compulsion – she can’t not roll over. The problem is that she doesn’t know how to get from her front to her back. So, I constantly have to flip her over.

We’re also in the process of getting a new house, but I can’t write about it because I’m afraid I’m going to jinx the process. Once things are firm, I’ll say more.

Pictures from Iceland

What do you think it means?

The heat is really getting to me. I think it is starting to affect both my conscious and subconscious minds (or what is left of them). Last night I dreamt I was grocery shopping and ran into Carlos Puyol (Barca and Spanish national soccer player) and Nick Rhodes (of Duran Duran fame). The dream wasn't very exciting; I just chatted with them in the store and then I woke up. Puyol and Nick Rhodes, what a combo for my subconscious to cobble together!

Too hot to think

So . . . . hot. Can’t . . . . think. Send . . . . cooler . . . . weather . . . . our . . . . way. Please.

There’s no let up in sight for the heatwave in London right now. Temps are in the 90s and there’s no A/C anywhere. Ick, ick, ick and double ick. I cannot handle this.

We had a wonderful time in Iceland. We just relaxed and hung out with family and friends.

Elsa’s now four months old and still a big girl. I’m not sure exactly how much she weighs now, but I think it is somewhere between 16 and 17 pounds. She’s rolling over now, and loves grabbing her toes.

Anna is still Elsa’s favorite person to look at. She makes Elsa laugh and laugh.

3 Months = smiles and laughter

Elsa turned 3 months on the 12th, and Anna was 2 and 1/2 on the 4th. Elsa just a chubby delight these days. She's constantly smiling and now she's starting to laugh. The catch is most of her laughter occurs in her sleep! Very very funny to see and hear. But, today, Anna's antics got the first real belly laugh out of Elsa while she was awake.

We've just returned from two weeks in Barcelona. It was fantastic to be in the sun and amazing weather -- warm with a nice breeze from the sea. Elsa was baptized while we were there, and Elsa's godmother (the lovely Sheryl) came from DC to spend some time with us in Spain. It was a lot of fun to see her. Now we're off to Iceland to visit my family and introduce Elsa to that clan. It should be lots of fun. More pictures and updates when we return!

Poop

Elsa is a pro when it comes to pooping. I don’t know how she manages it, but she is able to poo sideways out of her diaper about 5 times out of 10. It is amazing. This morning when I went to pick her up out of bed, Elsa gave me a huge grin (that should have been the tip-off), and when I reached down I found her entire right side covered in poo. It had gone all the way down her pant-leg and up her side. And she was happy as a clam. Thankfully, Anna was watching Pinocchio (for the 87th time), and I was able to plop Elsa straight into the bath. It doesn’t seem to matter how snugly I get Elsa's diaper on, she always seems to poo with such force that it gets out.

On the poo note, I’ve been making a somewhat half-hearted attempt to start potty training Anna. So far, she hasn’t grasped that she’s actually supposed to do something in the potty rather than just play around pretending to pee in it. I’m not sure how I’m going to go about getting her out of diapers, but I don’t think I’m going to start in earnest until after we do our traveling in June. Frankly, I’m being a bit lazy, but it seems like it will be so much easier to do traveling with Anna in diapers rather than always having to worry about finding a toilet for her. I think July 1st the diapers will come off and the rugs rolled up, and Anna will simply wear underwear (or streak around as she seems to love to do these days).

Funny Anna expressions:
- Umbrellala
- Still says “Help you” when she means “help me”
- Walking around with her pants at her ankles saying: “Look, I like a penguin!”
- Thanks really much
- Still wishes me a happy Christmas periodically
- Starting her sentences with “Ackshully . . .” is a recent development.
- Informing about different body parts that she possesses: “I got toes!” “I got a bellybutton”, etc. etc.
- “Whehyayou?” [where are you?] she calls when she’s lost something. It comes out as one word.
- Finally, her favorite game in recent days has been the “how are you today” game. She gets her little play stroller out and walks with it between the living room and kitchen. Then she comes up to me wherever I am and says “Hello mama, how are you today?” I reply “Fine thank you. How are you today, Anna?” She says, “Ok, bye, see you next week.” And she goes off with her stroller into the next room. About 30 seconds pass, and Anna comes back in and the previous conversation is repeated, and Anna leaves. Another 30 seconds pass, and Anna’s back. And again, and again, and again. I don’t know how many times it happens, but I think Anna does this at least 30 times before she gets tired of the game. It is like the “Groundhog Day” of games.

Two Months

Elsa has hit the two month mark -- time flies so fast! She is doing really well. We just had her two month check up (and shots), and she’s a huge baby. 15.5 pounds (6 kg) and 60 cm (25 inches). As you can imagine, she’s turning into a wonderfully chubby baby. She’s also smiling at everyone these days and has recently discovered her hands. I can’t seem to capture a picture of Elsa in full smile mode; I always seem to catch the beginning or end, but I did capture a picture of her staring at her fist. She also manages to get her hand into her mouth periodically and she relishes the chance to suck on it!

Anna continues to do well with Elsa. She loves giving her little sister kisses although some are not as gentle as I would like. Nevertheless, Anna likes having Elsa around and hasn’t exhibited any aggression towards her. Any jealousy she feels seems to manifest itself against me rather than Elsa which isn’t a problem in my book.
I’m starting to get the hang of managing two girls. It is definitely challenging at times, especially when I need to do Anna’s bedtime by myself. Elsa seems to be a pretty relaxed baby, as long as she’s fed at regular intervals! She’s been great at night – sleeping through the night since about 4 weeks! I hope haven’t jinxed this by writing about it, but it helps so much to get an uninterrupted night’s sleep.